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Can you provide a source for that? I dove near a desalination plant exit pipe in Saudi, the impact on the marine live did not seem to big in the area. But it wa

Can you provide a source for that? I dove near a desalination plant exit pipe in Saudi, the impact on the marine live did not seem to big in the area. But it was a small plant for a few thousand people and we did not do a proper assessment. I don't doubt there is an effect, but am not convinced that the "release area just dying" is correct.

EricE 5y ago
https://www.keiken-engineering.com/en/brine-disposal-how-efficient-desalination-plants-get-rid-of-toxic-remnant/ https://www.keiken-engineering.com/en/brine-disposal-how-eff... Brine disposal is indeed a complex issue. Should be noted the above URL is from a desalinization industry proponent so I would say it's probably a little more optimistically biased but it was one of the better summaries I found so it still has value from that perspective. If you do more digging around each of the solutions they discuss you can find more pro's/con's for each and you will quickly find out that it is a pretty significant issue.
- shellfishgene 5y ago
  The link does not really show any evidence that marine ecology at brine outlets is disturbed. It does however suggest that pouring the brine on land or roads (for de-icing) are alternative solutions, which I doubt ;). I was more thinking of proper studies, such as reviewed in [0], which says in the abstract: "Ecological monitoring studies have found variable effects ranging from no significant impacts to benthic communities, through to widespread alterations to community structure in seagrass, coral reef and soft-sediment ecosystems when discharges are released to poorly flushed environments. In most other cases environmental effects appear to be limited to within 10s of meters of outfalls." So, impact yes, but "release area is just dying", probably not. [0] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0043135410002903 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00431...

EricE 5y ago

https://www.keiken-engineering.com/en/brine-disposal-how-efficient-desalination-plants-get-rid-of-toxic-remnant/ https://www.keiken-engineering.com/en/brine-disposal-how-eff... Brine disposal is indeed a complex issue. Should be noted the above URL is from a desalinization industry proponent so I would say it's probably a little more optimistically biased but it was one of the better summaries I found so it still has value from that perspective. If you do more digging around each of the solutions they discuss you can find more pro's/con's for each and you will quickly find out that it is a pretty significant issue.

shellfishgene 5y ago
The link does not really show any evidence that marine ecology at brine outlets is disturbed. It does however suggest that pouring the brine on land or roads (for de-icing) are alternative solutions, which I doubt ;). I was more thinking of proper studies, such as reviewed in [0], which says in the abstract: "Ecological monitoring studies have found variable effects ranging from no significant impacts to benthic communities, through to widespread alterations to community structure in seagrass, coral reef and soft-sediment ecosystems when discharges are released to poorly flushed environments. In most other cases environmental effects appear to be limited to within 10s of meters of outfalls." So, impact yes, but "release area is just dying", probably not. [0] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0043135410002903 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00431...